Danley DTS-10 "Super Spud" DIY kit - Page 234

That's a very significant observation as RotS was really lacking in the bass department. Must have some good midbass as you say. Good.

I have not watched that movie since I have had the Danleys or the big cinema speakers. It was a huge difference in bass from what I can remember. I run a house curve though and my 20 hz and below is boosted(naturally of course from my room) and it is relatively flat 30hz-10Khz. The boosted low end could be the reason for the improvement because my sealed subs did not have a boosted low end. I like the boosted low end since it is in the inaudible range and you feel many bass pulse waves that hit you out of nowhere without muddying up the midbass since you only feel them. There was much more midbass than I can remember as well, can you say 2226's!! Scott, you will love them.

The wait is killing me!

Sorry for the delay guys, spent the day at Cedar Point.

Ok Tony123, I initially thought the svs was more articulate. After placing the beast in the front right corner of the room and placing the horn on the ground closest to the wall I spent an hour or two this evening of listening to familiar tracks and movies. I have to say The DTS-10 is on a different level. For example, the tympani section of Downstream near the end felt very, very real. The PB13 ultra made the tympani's sound good, the DTS-10 made it sound real. The attack, decay, reverb, and authority were all cleaner, louder, larger and just more real.

Another piece I enjoyed on my PB13 Ultra was Blue Caravan by Vienna Teng. Again with the DTS-10 the bass guitar throughout the piece seemed more alive and real. I have an Audio Engineer friend who is also a professional bass player, he will be stopping by with his gear to test out the system after I pick some speakers. So stay turned to hear from another professional.

So, for room size. I do not have a dedicated space. The living room plays double duty. The dimensions are 23 feet deep 15 feet wide and 9 feet tall, but it is an open floor pan. The last 7 feet of the back of the room include the stairs going up and a small cubby. This cubby is where a lot of sonic energy gets stuck. The sonic cannon scene in the Hulk really shows this effect. I can physically feel the sonic energy go past me, hit the back wall of the cubby and stay there. Treating this room with some absorption has become a top priority.

For speakers. I am auditioning Danley SH100, Micro and Mini some time next week. I would like to audition some JTRs but I do not know if any dealers or owners exist in the Cleveland area. Seaton sound would be nice as well but again, auditioning them is a problem. If I cannot find a way to audition some JTR/Seaton stuff, I will probably end up buying 3 SH100 and 2 JBL 8340, then next year possibly buy 2 SM60's for the LR, selling the JBL's. These plans are subject to change, but I have been without speakers since February. I am itching to pull the trigger and finishing one DTS-10 has put me directly in mission mode. I will more than likely end up with an entire Danley system, at this stage of the game.

P.S. getech, I sent you a pm.

Forin

What a post!!! really coool.
i'm going to follow the instructions, and have a try!

Thanks for the insight Forin! I briefly listened to the micros and mini and a few others. It wasn't until I heard the SH50 that I felt the magic start to happen. Looking forward to hearing what you end up with.

Ugh don't say that Tony123, I really cant be buying 2 SM60's right now . I was really hoping to get by with a few SH100's.







Forin

Yeah, I passed my RHCT exam

I made it to home depot today and hit the joints that were leaking and even though I couldn't see light, I noticed a few other places that bothered me so I went ahead and plugged them up as well. I hate to say it but at this point I probably have the 2 ugliest DTS-10's built thus far

I am going to let the glue dry and try putting the room back together tomorrow to see if it made a difference. The second sub I inspected was pretty much spot-on except one spot we did notice during the build and filled it with silicon. I could see light shining through but I think only because the silicon is transparent. I went ahead and blasted that area with some PL just in case. I will say Tony and I noticed that the sub that was leaking was down a 1-2DB compared to the sub that wasn't so I am not expecting HUGE gains here unless leaks really are that problematic. I was reading back through the thread and saw some used the "foam strips" around the mouth of the driver in the hole, I did not do this because I used the foam gaskets on both subs that they shipped in. I am thinking since I have the panels off now I may go use the leftover foam strips around the driver just in case.

I will try to post some REW graphs sometime this weekend so we can see what else may be going on. If I can't get REW working I am going to pick up a XTZ room analyzer.

Thanks.

I hate to say it, but if you have any gaps or leaks in any of the wood joints, then it is put together very poorly. The kit is CNC machined with Dado joints. Even without glue, you should not be able to see light through a joint. If their is a gap at any of these joints then that panel is warped (forced into a bent position). Assembly instructions should tell you to use a rubber mallet or block of wood and a hammer to seat the panels into the joints. If the instructions did not say that they should have. I am sure that has been recommended in this thread several times.

We'll see, glue dried over night so i am going to check the inside with my stethoscope and if all sounds well I will put the room back together and see how it sounds.

Just did the leak test internally and external on the entire cabinet (both subs) and Sub #1 was perfect, no leaks detected and I went over it twice using 10hz and 20hz sine waves.

Second cabinet was good in the spots I found using the light trick, but I also discovered another one on the same panel that had an issue at the top. I will definitely admit at this point that fitment isn't the best on this panel and I wish I could pop it off and try to get it to fit better. I hit the spot up with some PL and am waiting for it to dry. The rest of the joints and panels were fine with no leaks detected internal or external.

At this point I will say it is obvious why Sub #2 was down DB compared to Sub #1, but I still do not think this is going to fix my bass issues. One of these subs in my size room should be tearing it apart and given I found no leaks on Sub #1 leads me to believe there is a combo of problems (obviously the leaks in Sub #2 and possibly EQ or nulls.)

We'll see what REW turns up a little later today once I get the room back together. What DB on the receiver do you run the test tones at for REW to plot the graphs? I read in some posts whatever the internal test tones of the receiver are (0DB) but when I run -15DB with REW it sounds like my speakers are going to pop.

I believe it goes like this

-Set your receiver to -20
-set the mic to 85dB
-Play a test tone to confirm that the your SPL is set correctly(its at the top of the program to the right of measure)
-Load up the measure part(its the button with sub and mic)
-Let her rip from 20-100hz by pushing measure.

Post your rew graph when you are done. I do mine at 1m when first playing with the sub and then go through placing it, in your case this is what I would suggest. Also you have probably all ready read the rew guide over at the shack and loaded your cal files but the instructions above are how I do them.

Thanks. I've read the REW guides many-a-times but getting my MobilePRE setup with a good calibration file is such a pain. Hopefully it will behave today My AC just went out on my upstairs level so something else I have to take care of first

Just put the room back together and same crap different day. Transformers bass scene has practically no bass unless I run the subs hot to 90DB or so and then it is still lacking. I will say the polarity issue that Tony and I saw was self-imposed by my buddy that hooked up one of the particular subs. I never went back and checked his wiring to it but he must of had it hooked up wrong because when I hooked them positive-positive, negative-negative that resulted in the strongest DB. When I flipped polarity like how Tony and I had it I lost quite a bit of DB according to the meter.

I got m AC going and am about to start dinner then I will play with REW until I can post some graphs.

Getting frustrated

I am almost embarrassed to even post these, I think I have the world's worst room. I went back and made a brand new cal file just to make sure the results were accurate and sadly I'd say they are unless I am just dumb with setting up REW These are BARE, no EQ applied from my NR3007 Onkyo or my AS-EQ1. I also removed the BFD and plugged the DTS-10's directly into the Onkyo to eliminate anything messing up the graphs.

These were taken from my main listening position in between both chairs. Let me know if I should be adding smoothing or changing any other settings. I basically deleted all settings, made a new cal, imported my MIC file, setup the SPL and let it rip numerous times. The one thing I really dislike about REW is you can measure stuff in the same position and get semi-different graphs. My results were never 100% the same as scene in the overlay graph (#3.)

So I guess my next question is where do I go from here? It looks like all the major "slam" HZ frequencies I have severe -DB if I am reading these right. I still don't understand why my MFW-15's did not have this problem with low bass missing. I have the same equipment receiver and EQ wise and there was plenty of slam.

I did not try but I will, give me a few.

Take it 1m from the mouth, actually place the meter rite at the mouth and then recheck the measurements. That should be able to tell you if there is anything wrong with the sub.

Also since you changed the calibration file I would recheck it with you other speakers to make certain that 85dB outputted by the speakers is 85dB measured by the mic at 1m.

Brandon: Here are the graphs of both subs directly in front of the port. MIC was tipped upside down on Sub2 because the port is in the corner on the bottom which as I understand the ECM8000 is very picky about placement (vertical vs horizontal)



Yellow=Subs that had leaks
Red=No leaks

Subs are same distance apart but in opposite corners

Is there an 80Hz crossover in that close-mic measurement?

jmalto, could you perhaps have one of those receivers that need their sub out mV boosted with a Samson?

Well thats pretty darn good, I guess you now get to play the placement game now you know your danley is performing the way it should

isn't this hobby wonderful?

stgdz - I honeslty have no clue, but what were you looking for to verify the subs were "OK?" It looks nasty compared to Fatawan's port graphs when he first got his

Fat - You are correct, I left the 80HZ crossover engaged on the receiver. All my speakers are set to 80 for the crossover so everything above 80 is going to them. Audyssey is turned off on the Onkyo and Dynamic is turned on.

Flying - I dunno, I can't rule out anything but I do have 2 sub outputs on my receiver. I could try swapping to it and see what it does.

So does anyone else agree with STG that the subs look ok and I need to play with placement now?

I did not play any movies tonight and measure the SPL. Do you want me to run the same test scenes that Tony and I did when he was over here? In watching the little bit that I did earlier today I'd venture to say it will be the same.

Were those close graphs taken with the mic right at the mouth of each horn? Like the mic tip right in the mouth?

The mid-50s peaks are way off in that pic. Like almost a meter of path length off.

No, the mic tip was infront of the port not in it on both subs

Brandon - Just ran some tests and 106DB is highest on the flip-scene in Transformers and that entire action scene at -3DB on my Onkyo (0 is reference.) Subs are calibrated to 80DB too so they are even running hot. That is the same as it was when Tony was here. Batman was the movie we hit 110DB I believe but I can tell nothing has changed.

Any other graphs or tests we can run? I left REW hooked up to my laptop so I can plot out anything as ideas come up.

"Any other graphs or tests we can run?"

How about w/o DynEQ which is boosting the low end.